The holidays were supposed to be a joyful time for Alicia Elam.
Instead, she has been left scrambling to arrange child care for her daughter, since she received notice that the YMCA would be temporarily suspending its after-school program.
"The YMCA has kind of left a bad taste in our mouths," Elam said. "It's a couple of weeks before Christmas."
The program, which provides care for 89 families, is being suspended from January through May because the YMCA is moving its fitness facility into the multipurpose room, where the after-school program currently is housed.
The decision was announced in a letter on Dec. 1, leaving parents with a month to try to find alternative placement for their children.
"You can't just find a child care facility, especially on such short notice," said Elam, whose daughter is in second grade at Kanawha City Elementary.
The YMCA is making an effort to provide support for parents. Currently, they're looking into partnering with Discovery Kingdom in Charleston to place about 60 kids, ages 12 and under.
Discovery Kingdom had an after-school program at its South Charleston location, but canceled it when the facility moved to the East End of Charleston.
The two organizations will be meeting today to discuss the details of a collaboration, including busing options and the cost to parents. Discovery may even be able to hire some of the staff that worked in the after-school program at the YMCA.
Tamra Protan, director of Discovery Kingdom, said the timing was perfect because she had been looking into restarting Discovery's after-school program.
"I just hope it works out because it would really be a blessing for our business," Protan said.
The YMCA is also looking into keeping a version of the after-school program for 25 percent of the families they currently serve. The facility has not yet released the details on which students might get to stay or where they'd be placed.
Even if the YMCA is able to make a connection with Discovery Kingdom, Elam is worried about the costs that might be associated with finding alternate care. Currently the YMCA charges about $50 a week to parents, which is similar to other after-school programs in the area, but the YMCA offers a reduced rate for low-income families through its scholarship program.
If parents choose not to go through the YMCA or Discovery, they may face waiting lists from other after-school programs that are already at capacity.
Elam, who is frustrated with the YMCA and isn't sure if there is enough playground space at Discovery, is exploring other options but hasn't found anything yet.
Elam is also feeling inconvenienced because her daughter took tennis lessons at the YMCA during her after-school care. She said she will probably end up canceling the future lessons, even though throughout the construction the YMCA will continue to operate its youth sports programs, summer camps and full-day out programming.
"We're sorry for the inconvenience this is creating initially," said YMCA marketing and public relations specialist Jason Keeling. "But in the long term this transition will make for a stronger youth development program."
But there's no guarantee that people will be back in the fall.
"Not after this," Elam said. "What's going to tell me that they're not going to do this again?"
Reach Daniel Desrochers at dan.desrochers@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4886 or follow @drdesrochers on Twitter.